January 25 – Musician and anti-government activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is charged with murder and conspiracy after (according to the Nigerian police) an electrician was beaten to death at his home by his bodyguards.[5]

January 31 – Michael Jackson plays the halftime show of Super Bowl XXVII. The performance is a ratings success and begins a trend of the NFL signing big-name acts to play at the Super Bowl in order to increase the spectacle and hype surrounding the game.

February 10 – Oprah Winfrey interviews Michael Jackson during a US television prime time special. It becomes one of the most watched interviews in television history and is Jackson's first in fourteen years.[6]

March 23 – Luciano Pavarotti undergoes surgery in Rome to remove part of the cartilage in his right knee, after cancelling his La Scala debut of I Pagliacci when he could no longer stand because of acute pain.[10]

March 29 – Suede release their eponymous debut album. It enters the album chart at Number 1 in the UK, setting a new record for the fastest-selling debut album by a UK act in Britain.

July 7 – Singer Mia Zapata of punk band The Gits is found dead after being beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled in the Capitol Hill district of Seattle. Her murder goes unsolved for a decade until DNA evidence leads to an arrest and conviction.

July 18 – At a Lollapalooza concert in Philadelphia, Rage Against the Machine uses their entire 14-minute performance time to protest their single "Killing in the Name" being banned from radio. With only guitar feedback for sound, the group appears on stage naked with the letters "PMRC" painted on their chests and electrical duct tape over their mouths.

September 2 – Snoop Dogg and his bodyguard are charged with the August 25 murder of a 20-year-old gang member in a drive-by shooting. They are cleared of the charges in 1996.

September 14 – A civil lawsuit is filed against Michael Jackson by thirteen-year-old Jordan Chandler and his parents, accusing the singer of sexually abusing the boy over the course of their friendship.

September 20 – Depeche Mode becomes among the earliest bands to go on the Internet to interact with fans, as the group holds a question-and-answer session on AOL. The event is marred by technical difficulties as many participants, including the band members themselves, have trouble logging on to the chat.

November 12 – Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, responding to an announcement by the Arts Council that they would fund only two of London’s four orchestras starting in 1994, confirms that he plans to hand back his knighthood and consider leaving the country if this support were to be withdrawn.[22]

December 22 – Michael Jackson makes his first public statement regarding the child molestation allegations leveled against him. In a videotaped address, Jackson calls the accusations "totally false" and asks the public to "wait to hear the truth before you label or condemn me."